Former Wisconsin state senator and farmer James Delos Swan was born in Nesho Falls, Kansas, on February 20, 1903. He attended schools in Kansas and graduated from New Trier High School, Winnetka, Illinois, and graduated (magna cum laude) from Princeton University with a degree in philosophy in 1925. For seven years Swan worked in the Chicago financial district, first in real estate development and later in the mortgage and financing business. In 1930 he gave in to his dream of becoming a farmer when he became associated with Turtle Valley Farm, north of Delavan, Wisconsin. In 1932 he bought out the other owner, moved his family there and turned to managing it on a fulltime basis. In the following year, Swan converted the farm which had been a floundering experimental muckland tract into a successful commercial vegetable operation with emphasis on potatoes. Toward this end he did a great deal of experimental work on potatoes and on chemical weed controls for onions and carrots for the University of Wisconsin. In 1950 he purchased an interest in Swanee Superior Farms in Iron County, where he raised table and seed potatoes.
Swan was active in numerous agricultural organizations, serving many in a leadership capacity. He was a founder of the Wisconsin Muck Farmers Association and served as president (1938-1940) and director (1940-1946). In 1948 he helped to organize the Potato Growers of Wisconsin (later the Potato and Vegetable Growers of Wisconsin) and served as Wisconsin president in 1951, and national vice-president from 1954 to 1955. For four years, he was chairman of the fruit and vegetable division of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau. Other civic activities included Rotary and service on the Walworth County Drainage Board and the local school board. Swan was also active in Republican Party politics, serving as a member of the state agriculture policy committee and as Walworth County treasurer and vice-chairman. He was an early supporter of the presidential candidacy of Barry Goldwater, and later was a leading advocate of Vice-President Spiro Agnew. Governor Warren Knowles appointed him to the Governor's Board for Economic Development, a bi-partisan advisory board. Swan was an active outdoorsman and conservationist, and he maintained a commercial pilots license.
In October 1967 Swan was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in a special election and then re-elected for a four-year term in 1970. As a forceful spokesman for the conservative political philosophy, Swan quickly rose to a position of leadership. He served on the Joint Committee on Finance, 1967-1969, then was selected as Senate vice-chairman for the 1971 and 1973 sessions. On Joint Finance, Swan earned a statewide reputation as a staunch defender of fiscal conservatism and the taxpayers' interests. For this reason Swan often referred to himself as the taxpayers' lobbyist. He also served on the State Bond Board and State Building Commission and the Senate Agriculture Committee. Other committee assignments are listed in biennial editions of the Blue Book.
Swan was defeated in his attempt at re-election in 1974 by Tim Cullen. He died on June 25, 1977 after a long illness.
